Brides of Prairie Gold (51 page)

Hilda blushed. "I am having this small health problem. We will need to stop frequently so I can run into the bushes and"

"This has gone far enough!" Cody strode into their midst "I swear I'll give Quinton the arms wagon before I'll let all of you get killed trying to implement some damned fool plan!"

Mem drew to her considerable height. "If you won't assist us, Captain Snow, at least be quiet and stay out of our way!" She sent Webb a loving look, then joined the circle of women that stepped around Cody and reformed.

Cody spun. "Do you support this?" he demanded.

Webb leaned against a tree trunk, his arms folded across his chest. He grinned and tilted his head toward Mem. "Looks like I don't have a choice." The grin faded. "You know I don't agree with leaving you behind to face Quinton's gang alone. And Mem's right. If Quinton gets away from you, he'll follow the train."

Cody ground his teeth together. He knew he wasn't thinking as clearly as he usually did. All he could think about was Perrin. What were they doing to her? What was she thinking?

Webb observed the women, then looked back at Cody. "You better listen in, Captain, or you're going to confront Quinton wearing the wrong battle color." A faint grin returned.

"Son of a bitch!" They were discussing what to wear. And he realized their choice had sound logic behind it. They had decided to hide in the snowflakes by wearing white. He waded into their center to take charge, although he had to concede they weren't doing badly on their own.

"If you damn fools are determined to do this, then here's how we're going to do it." He glared at the men watching and grinning. He gestured to them. "Get over here. Or do you plan to let these women face Quinton alone?"

Thea returned then, breathlessly waving the map she had drawn. Cody studied it for a full three minutes, with Webb looking over his shoulder.

Instantly they both knew this was where they would find Quinton and his gang. It was exactly the site Cody would have chosen in Jake Quinton's place. "How far?" he asked Webb.

"About thirty minutes from camp."

Lifting his gaze, Cody looked into Thea's eyes. "Thank you." His gaze narrowed. "And don't you ever wander thirty minutes away from the wagons again. Damn it!"

Smiling, she joined the others, then so did Cody. He talked for thirty minutes, rehearsed them for an hour. By the time he sent them to their wagons to don warm white apparel, it was almost two o'clock.

He and Webb checked their powder and balls. "We'll leave Smokey to guard the wagons and Ona." For a moment his thoughts wandered. No, he couldn't think about Ona now. "Hilda and Thea will be the slowest; both are in poor health. We'll let them set the pace."

If something happened to Perrin before he had the chance to tell her that he loved her, he would never forgive himself. What the hell difference did it make that she had been Joseph Boyd's mistress? And she was nothing like Ellen. Perrin was his now, and that's all that mattered. Not the past, just the future.

That he hadn't permitted himself to accept this truth proved that a man could be a fool in a hundred ways. And he'd run through just about all of them with Perrin. He had a lot of explaining to do. He prayed that she would forgive him and that she still wanted him.

"I just hope our brides don't shoot each other," he muttered, slamming balls into his pockets.

"The chances for avoiding an accident will improve if you assign Bootie to ammunition instead of giving her a gun," Webb commented. "I'm amazed my sister-in-law hasn't shot her toes off before today." He checked his gear. "We're ready."

Now, when he wanted the snow to conceal them, it began to thin. In an hour the sky would clear. Cody swore. And he threw up his hands when he spotted the women coming toward him in their wedding dresses and frilly white shawls.

"God help us."

They filed straight past him and entered the forest, not waiting to be led. Their attitude, he swiftly realized, was a lot less frilly than their attire. They were grimly prepared to confront the same outlaw who miles ago had killed Bill Macy and Jeb Holden. They were committed to protect the arms wagon and their future and to rescue one of their own.

Cody watched them and gradually his shoulders relaxed. God alone knew how this would turn out. But he'd led less motivated troops than this one, and three of the brides were as good with a carbine as any man who had served under his command.

"If we're going to lead this troop," he said between his teeth, looking at Webb, "we'd better move or they're going to leave our butts behind."

Cold and miserable, Perrin huddled in her shawl near the mouth of the cave, away from the fire and the men who sat around it. Pale white woodsmoke curled along the roof of the cave and drifted past her, making her headache worse.

Dried blood matted her hair to her temple. Her ankle ached where the rope around it had chafed through her stockings and rubbed her skin raw. Cold penetrated her shawl and gloves and occasionally she shivered uncontrollably. But she didn't ask to move closer to the fire. She sat as far from the five men as the rope around her ankle permitted.

One was drunk and the others were moving in that direction. Already they celebrated the fortune they would gain from selling the carbines and ammunition. Without wanting to hear, Perrin listened to their plans, staring out of the cave at the snow gently accumulating on leaves and tree limbs.

Cody would never voluntarily surrender the arms wagon. He might want to, but his obligations as wagonmaster would not allow it. And the women would never agree. Their futures depended on the sale of the arms and ammunition. They would not squander their bridegrooms' investment or leave themselves without homes for the winter. She didn't blame them, didn't hold it against them. They had no real choice.

Perrin watched the falling snow and considered her situation.

Her heart insisted that Cody would not abandon her. He'd send the others on to the Willamette Valley, and he would stay behind to search for her. But he'd never find this secluded cave. If he did chance to eventually stumble on it, he would be too late. Quinton would make good on his threat. When Quinton didn't get the arms wagon, he would kill her, after his men took their pleasure. Every time one of them shifted, she started, thinking the rapes were about to begin. But so far the men only talked about it. She suspected they waited for the snow to stop so they could drag her outside the small cave.

Understanding that she was likely to die prompted Perrin to reflect over her life. Frowning, she recalled a lonely childhood and an isolated adulthood. Continuing, she reviewed her brief unhappy marriage to Garin Waverly, the period following his death, and the months with Joseph Boyd.

She couldn't genuinely regret either man. Each in his own way had filled a desperate need, and each in his own way had cared for her. They had stolen her self-esteem and her good name, but she had been a different woman then; she had let them do it.

A plume of vapor sighed from her lips. A woman's life was one long search for a good man. The mistakes were devastating.

Her one regret was that she had finally found her good man, but fate and Cody's own pigheadedness had decided she would never have him for her own.

She could have loved him so much. She could have erased Ellen's memory, could have shown him the security and trust and joy that a woman in love could bring to a man. She could have made him as happy as he would have made her.

Something moved beside a fir tree not far from the cave's entrance. Perrin's frown deepened and she peered through thinning snow. She saw nothing. She must have imagined

Blinking hard, concentrating, she slowly scanned the forest. No puffs of vapor signaled the presence of a person or animal.

But the longer and harder she looked, the more she began to hallucinate snow-covered bushes draped in white ruffles. There was another one. And she spotted a strange short sheet of snow hemmed midway with dangling, yarnlike icicles.

One of the outlaws rose behind her, crouching so his head wouldn't scrape the roof of the cave. He threw a whiskey bottle past Perrin's head and she heard it shatter against the rocks a foot below the cave mouth. "Got to water the tiger," he said, reaching for his fly.

The others laughed as he paused beside Perrin, dug his fingers into her hair, and jerked her head back. He planted a wet whiskey kiss hard on her lips. "That's just a sample of what you're going to get," he said, bringing fresh laughter from the others before he stumbled out of the cave, straightened, then staggered into the trees and snowflakes.

Perrin spit and wiped a hand across her lips. Ordinarily she wouldn't have watched a man relieve himself, but she strained to see his dark coat moving among the firs.

Something white slipped across her line of sight. White wrapped hat, white scarf pulled over a nose. A white and brown poncho. And a flash of intense blue eyes that her heart recognized before her mind did. She sucked in a sharp breath and her pulse leaped. Cody! He was here!

Stiffening, she narrowed her gaze and focused intently. The ruffled bushes appeared to advance. Something stirred—an arm?and she glimpsed a flash of auburn that vanished in an eyeblink. Mem!

Oh, God. They were all here. They had come to rescue her.

She heard a peculiar gurgling sound, and could no longer see the outlaw. Frantically, she wondered what Cody's plan was and how she might help.

She cleared her throat, mind racing. "Excuse me"

"Hear that, boys?" Quinton's yellow eyes plundered her breast. "She's getting eager."

"I think something may have happened to the man who went outside. I thought I heard a call for help."

"Ole Everett can't pee without help?" They laughed. Several long minutes elapsed, then Quinton frowned at the mouth of the cave. "Frank, go see what in the hell is taking Everett so damned long. Maybe the stupid fool is too drunk to find his way back."

Do it , Perrin silently urged. She already knew she couldn't untie the rope around her ankle, but she tested it a little by drawing her knees up. Quinton glared and gave the rope a sharp yank that cut into her skin. "You ain't going nowhere."

"I'm just moving soFrank?can get past."

Frank moved forward, crouching until he stepped past Perrin and could straighten just outside the cave.

All hell broke loose.

A shot exploded from one of the ruffled bushes. Bits of rock flew from the top of the cave just above Frank's shoulder. He froze in surprise long enough for another shot to hit him in the thigh and spin him around. Perrin jerked back her feet as he struggled for balance, then he dived forward, pulling his pistol as he fell.

Gunfire erupted around her as the men at the fire rushed to the mouth of the cave, pistols blazing. Perrin seized the moment to grab the rope and, finding it slack, she rolled out of the cave mouth and fell behind some prickly laurel. Flattening out, she covered her head with her arms and prayed she wouldn't be struck by the blizzard of bullets.

The gun battle lasted several endless minutes, then suddenly the forest fell silent. When Perrin dared to open her eyes, she saw two forms, Cody and Webb, crawling toward the bodies strewn about the cave mouth. Holding her breath, she watched as they split off in two directions.